As Chicago's mosquito season approaches, experts discuss how bad it could be

The Chicago area has had a volatile spring in terms of its weather, with plenty of rain and fluctuating temperatures, but how could that impact mosquito season?

While experts caution it is too early to know exactly how bad mosquito season will be, Chicago is one of the U.S. cities most impacted by mosquitoes, at least according to a new ranking by Orkin.

The pest control company ranks Chicago as the No. 2-worst city for mosquito issues in the country, behind only Los Angeles.

With the prevalence of mosquito-borne illnesses like West Nile Virus, residents will surely want to know whether they’ll be swatting extra insects this summer, and organizations like the North Shore Mosquito Abatement District are hard at work determining just how bad the issue could be this year.

“April was kind of wet and warm, and we have definitely seen an uptick in our service requests,” Mark Clifton, the organization’s executive director, said. “This is April and May, and we are approaching a July-type number.”

The Abatement District is busy collecting mosquito specimens around the northern suburbs, and they’re also plotting out the thousands of catch-basins where teams will be placing natural pesticides to help kill tiny mosquito larvae.

According to Clifton, the efforts focus on an area stretching from Highland Park to Evanston.

Etymologist George Balis says the weather has likely created a lot of areas that would be conducive to mosquito breeding, but there’s still more that has to happen for the insects to be extra-impactful this year.

“It’s still very early in the season to predict what a mosquito season could be like. It’s been wet, but it’s still cool at this point,” he said.

Balis says wet periods of spring like the one the Chicago area has experienced can bring breeds of mosquitoes that can be a nuisance, but for the Northern House Mosquito, the species that primarily drives West Nile cases, hotter weather in the early summer months is the key ingredient for their development.

As for what residents can do to keep themselves safe from mosquitoes, regardless of species?

“Mosquitoes are attracted by scent,” Balis said. “The carbon dioxide you give off, also perfumes and sweat attracts them to people. There are also studies that show other things that are in your body, whether you have problems with your kidneys or liver, that can attract mosquitoes as well.”

To help keep populations down, residents are urged to get rid of standing water in kiddie pools and buckets in their yards, as well as sandboxes that can collect water during rain storms.

If residents venture out of the house at dusk, it’s urged that they wear clothing that covers arms and legs, as well as insect repellant when possible.

from NBC Chicago https://ift.tt/1IpvsFQ